Amityville Dollhouse (1996)

A blended family moves into a new house to get a fresh start. The father stumbles on a familiar looking dollhouse and gives it to his daughter as a gift. It's not long before odd things start happening, slowly tearing the family apart."Stab 2? Who'd want to do that? Sequels suck," said film geek Randy in 1997s Scream 2. There are many who share this opinion, but as well all know it makes no difference. Each year we see the release of a handful of sequels, some of which aren't bad at all.

With each increasing chapter, it becomes more difficult to keep a series fresh. No one wants a simple repeat of what they saw before. In some cases, the filmmakers start to delve into the ridiculous since there's really nowhere else to go. After three big screen adventures, the Amityville series appeared to be dead and buried. Six years after the campy third film, the franchise was resurrected for the small screen. Only this time instead of a haunted house, we were given a haunted lamp(!).

The Amityville Curse aside, the series continued the trend of cursed inanimate objects terrorizing a family. First, there was an antique clock from the house, then a Gothic looking mirror. This was a concept that could have been dragged on forever, but thankfully it wasn't. Instead, the long-running series came to an end with a film featuring a haunted dollhouse. Not surprisingly, it's an almost exact replica of the famous Long Island home (The one from the movies anyway). What is a surprise however, is that for the eighth film in a series it's not half bad.

All across the board, the performances are pretty good and the actors have chemistry. The child actors are especially good and their presence really ups the stakes. Unlike the actors, Steve White was a first time director here and he does a decent job. His biggest strength is creating suspense and a real feeling of doom that runs for most of the film. Having been involved with some previous chapters probably helped too.

The score isn't one of the best in the series, but is still pretty effective. The main theme is almost like an homage to the original with the use of a children's chorus. For such a low budget effort the make-up and special effects are nicely done. The demons that appear in the climax are most impressive, one even like something out of H.P. Lovecraft. And even though there isn't a lot of novelty here, there are still some neat ideas. For example, things that happen in the dollhouse can happen in real life.

One word I wouldn't use to describe the film is scary. Sure there are monsters, giant bugs and spooky sounds, but nothing that's likely to chill your blood. Also lacking is a plot; family moves into new home, dad finds dollohouse, havoc ensues. There are several films and episodes of genre TV shows featuring a similar plot. And though the film is never actually dull, the pace does drag at times and mostly in the middle. Amityville Dollhouse is hardly a genre classic, but it's better than it should be.

6/10